Members of Toastmasters have the opportunity to compete in various speaking contests after completing six speeches from the Competent Communicators manual. This happens first at the club level, then at the area level, then division and finally at the district level.

Contestants who compete in the International Speech contest, if they win at all levels listed above, have a chance to compete to be crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking. For competitive speakers within Toastmasters, this is the most prestigious designation that can be reached.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to support a member of my club who was competing in the International Speech Contest at the district level. I sat with other members of my club at the table directly in front of the stage. It was a unique opportunity to get a chance to witness some of the best speakers in our district close up.

I was amazed at the great level of talent, practice and preparation that the competitors displayed. The competition was stiff and the member of our club did not win the contest. The person who did win was Presiyan Vasilev, who gave an amazing presentation about a time when he had car troubles.

So it was interesting to learn a few months later when Vasilev was crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking for 2013. I wasn’t surprised…he was that good. To see the winning speech, please view the video above.

Interesting to note…according to Darren LaCroix, Vasilev delivered his speech at various points somewhere between 40 and 50 times. Also worth noting, he is a member of six different Toastmasters clubs in the Chicago area.

If you’ve been around long enough on this blog to read about the Pecha Kucha presentation by Maria Scileppi that blew me away, you know that she spent 60 hours to prepare for her six minute 40 second presentation. I have no doubt Vasilev spent considerably more time to prepare in his quest to become the World Champion speaker in 2013.

I share all this as a reminder to you that, if it’s important enough, you must put in the time and effort to do your best…to be your best. And while you may not be designated as a champ after all this preparation, you will win the respect of others and more importantly…yourself.

A couple weeks ago, while driving home from work, I tuned into the rebroadcast of Fresh Air on my local NPR station. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Terry Gross interview astronaut Chris Hadfield. Truthfully, I wasn’t too aware of Mr. Hadfield. I do remember viewing his version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from the International Space Station which became a YouTube hit and generated more than 19 million views.

However, I was filled with a sense of child-like wonder and awe as I listened to Hadfield describe what life was like in space and the amount of courage, preparation and dedication it takes to pull off a typical mission. I was also blown away hearing Hadfield’s eloquent, almost poetic description of the views of earth from the International Space Station.

Recently, Hadfield released a book, “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.” It’s the type of book I wouldn’t typically read, but it will immediately go to the top of my reading list.

Whether you’re a marketing pro, teacher, engineer or fast food employee, I highly recommend you listen to the Terry Gross interview with Chris Hadfield. It will expand and add perspective to your thinking and give you a deeper appreciation for the risks astronauts take in the name of science.

“Hero” and “Rock Star” are words that are overused in the media and today’s society. After listing to the Fresh Air interview there’s no doubt in my mind that Chris Hadfield is both.

As an avid cyclist and a member of my local YMCA, I see a lot that impresses me: cyclists that blaze down the bike path in the stifling heat and humidity, runners with unstoppable endurance and weight lifters that can bench press twice my weight with ease. When I see these athletes in action, I feel motivated to step up my “game” by pushing myself a little harder and farther. No, I’m not in a competition with them, but I’m competitive with myself.

As much as these athletes impress me, there are others in these same places that amaze me even more. These are people with physical challenges who, despite their challenges, show up every day with a workman-like attitude. When I see them, it’s not their athletic ability that impresses me…it’s their courage.

At the Y, I see an Asian woman in her 60’s who has suffered a stroke. She uses a cane to walk (slowly and deliberately) and then she carefully gets onto the rowing machine for an hour’s worth of rowing. There’s nothing impressive about her rowing…it’s not particularly fast. What impresses me the most is her courage to show up and get onto the rowing machine despite the difficulty and struggle to to so.

On the bike path, I pass a woman – in her 70s (I presume) walking at a slow pace. She’s thin and somewhat frail-looking and her gait is not a natural one. Sometimes she has others walking alongside her. But what impresses me is her consistency to show up. Every Sunday when I’m out there on the trail, she’s out there too. Again, there’s nothing impressive about the way she walks. However, the fact that she’s out there every Sunday blows me away. When I see her, I smile and feel blessed by her presence.

In our day-to-day lives, there are a likely a lot of people who catch our attention – people with natural gifts, talents and plenty of charisma. But I’m learning that the real heroes are the people who aren’t perfect in their activities, work and appearance…they are ones taking imperfect, courageous and consistent action.
What action or activity, however imperfect, are you putting off?

Webster’s Dictionary defines social media as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal ideas and other content.” Social media as a term is not even ten years old (according to Webster’s), yet it continues to evolve and change. With this in mind, I attended Social Media Week in Chicago last week.

Due to other obligations and time constraints, I was only able to attend six of the more than 180 sessions. However, I noticed a few things while attending these sessions. Here are four:

1. Story is important. Whether a session focused on content marketing, branding or social media in general, the word I kept hearing throughout my time at Social Media Week Chicago was “story.” In fact, five of the six sessions I attended mentioned the importance of story. Brands need to be able to tell a strong, convincing story about their product(s) in order to attract customers. Content marketers need to craft a strong story about their clients/products in order to continually attract web visitors.

At the Monday session on telling your brand story, Brandtrust CEO Daryl Travis described how stories tap into both the conscious (5 percent) and unconscious portions (95 percent) of our brain. He mentioned that successful products/brands are usually better at telling their story and that consumers often draw from the brand’s story in order to help shape their own.

In the session on content marketing, members of Cramer-Krasselt stressed that marketers need to “do more than tell a story, tell your story” and indicated that consumers in general want to know more about the brand and its story.

In his keynote, author and comedian B.J. Mendelson recommended that the audience pick up a copy of Robert McKee’s “Story” in order to gain a better perspective and understanding of story.

2. Social Media is Sometimes Bullshit. This takeaway is borrowed from the title of the B.J. Mendelson book “Social Media is Bullshit.” Medelson offered his view about social media during Wednesday’s early session. Consider him the anti-social media guru in a world of marketing and social media “gurus.”

In his presentation, Mendelson offered the audience a different perspective of social media. While many marketing experts believe that social media is the ultimate solution to market an organization and its products today, Mendelson reminded the audience that more than 290 million Americans do not use Twitter and 287 million Americans do not use Facebook (his data shared in the presentation). He also stressed that all communication viewed on Twitter and Facebook is being expressed by a minority of people, yet mainstream media tends to represent this communication as coming from the majority.

Mendelson believes that journalists don’t do enough fact-checking and that information shared on social channels can easily be manipulated and regarded as truth when, in fact, it is not. He recommended that journalists and marketers spend more time gathering data, preferably offline.

In addition to the Robert McKee book mentioned above, Mendelson recommended that marketers read Northwestern University’s “Kellogg on Marketing,” a book considered one of the bibles of marketing. I found this as an interesting and a wise recommendation.

I didn’t agree with everything Mendelson said, but I appreciated his point of view and liked that he stressed the importance of having a more broad understanding of marketing.

3. Face to Face is as important as ever. While social media is all about communicating online, I believe the magic happens when we communicate in person. That’s why events like Social Media Week, South by Southwest (SXSW) and Blogworld have been so popular. These events are great for learning, but they’re even better for making strong connections.

In his presentation, B.J. Mendelson indicated that he sees a trend of more social media going offline and mentioned that 93 percent of word-of-mouth marketing is offline.

My favorite moments of Social Media Week occurred when I was able to connect and say hello to friends and people in my network. It was also great to speak and shake hands with world-renowned chef Homaro Cantu from Chicago’s moto restaurant. Interestingly, Cantu edits most of the videos for his restaurant.

4. Get creative. My favorite session at this year’s Social Media Week was “Influencing Social Awesomizers With Personal Content” delivered by Rise Interactive CEO Jon Morris. What I loved about it was the significant amount of creativity that the Rise team utilized by creating an infographic that helped describe the online confrontation between the Kansas City Chiefs and Chiefs fan and marketing strategist Travis Wright. The infographic helped forge a relationship between the agency and the very influential Wright. I enjoyed learning about the thought process behind this and other influencer campaigns which Rise has created.

In a the crowded world of social media, its more important than ever to utilize creative ideas in order to gain the attention from friends and followers.

Every other day, it seems, we hear of athletes, celebrities and professionals at all levels getting into trouble for something shared on Twitter (and other social media channels). I recently stumbled upon the FireMe site, which provides a real-time list of Tweets that can potentially get you into trouble. As I explore that site, I’m surprised at just how many people are willing to risk potential damage to their reputation or spend their time being negative on social media.

On the flip side, there is plenty of opportunity to utilize social media in a very positive way. Last month, I was blown away and moved by a series of Tweets shared by Scott Simon, an NPR journalist and host of “Weekend Edition Saturday”. Simon was spending time at his mother’s bedside in a Chicago hospital as she was dying from cancer and sharing his thoughts…

Reading Simon’s thoughts got me emotional as I flashed back to time spent at my mother’s bedside when she was in the ICU in a coma just two years ago. Unlike Simon, I did not get a chance to say goodbye or share any last moments of communication with her. I felt a brief moment of jealousy that Simon was able to experience this closure with her. However, reading about these precious moments in 140 character snippets gave me a sense of comfort and helped me imagine what my last words and moments of communication would have been like with my mother. While it was sad for me to read what Simon was going through, I felt emotionally connected to Simon and even uplifted to read about the last days and moments with his mother.

Some may argue whether it was right or proper for Simon to share these last private moments with his mother on Twitter. My answer is a resounding “yes.” There have been times when writing has been therapeutic for me throughout my own grief process. I realize that live Tweeting these last moments with his mother must have had a similar effect for Simon. I also believe the lessons and reminders can be valuable for all of us.

I am grateful Scott Simon shared his last moments with his mother on Twitter…it reminds me that while Twitter gets a lot of attention for to the many wrong (and negative) ways people use social media, it can also be used to share amazing, honest and emotionally powerful thoughts in one’s life.

For a more detailed article on Scott Simon’s Tweets at his mother’s bedside (including a slideshow of all the Tweets), please visit The Huffington Post.

How about you…what is the most memorable, positive and inspiring content you’ve read on Twitter?

Have you ever read an article or watched a presentation and wished that you would have written or delivered it first? I felt that way last year when I stumbled upon this talk by storyteller/poet/improviser/musician Dave Morris. His TEDx Victoria talk is the talk I wish I would have delivered back when I was daydreaming about delivering a TED talk.